Battery DOA

[SRQrws]

I just received a new Macbook Air from B&H Photo this morning. It didn't power up as usual when I first opened the lid. I hooked up to AC and after a few minutes I was able to boot up. The battery had been fully discharged. The normal "set up new" routine was a little weird. Although it started out normally (set language/country) it didn't prompt for my Apple ID. Seemed like a couple of steps were missing. There was no evidence of it not being new -- packaging was perfect, sealed in cellophane, etc. I contact B&H and the rep told me that 'new regs require air shipping of batteries in a discharged state.' I didn't buy that. I've set up two other Macbooks this year and that wasn't the case. The battery seems to be charging normally now and I'm going to do a fresh install since I haven't taken time to really set anything up yet. Has anyone else seen this with a new machine? Any thoughts? Thanks

 

[pldelisle]

I contact B&H and the rep told me that 'new regs require air shipping of batteries in a discharged state.'

LOL!!!!
What a dumb answer.

 

[clueless88]

It is strange that one can get a MacBook Pro Air with the batteries flat like that. When electronic items come out of the factory, the devices are booted up to ensure that it works, then shut down. The batteries may not be charged 100% but should be enough to boot up devices.

It would be a waste of time to have the factories drain batteries prior to shipping.

I think the shipping danger has nothing to do with charge level, but rather the composition of the batteries, namely lithium. The shipping boxes have warnings for the shippers (FedEx, UPS, USPS) for items with lithium batteries.

Not sure if the rep was reading from their computer scrip or was doing improv off of his/her teleprompter.

May want to check your MacBook Pro Air's battery performance after it gets 100% charge--there may be a short somewhere (aka parasitic drain), or perhaps things weren't shut down properly prior to shipping.